D40 Canopies

Hi Guys,

I am waiting on delivery of my new D40 and am looking at fitting a canopy, I like the nissan canopy but the price is a bit much. Does anyone have any ideas for a similar looking lid, i.e. smooth finish and not high rise.
Also, I am a bit worried about some things being said about navara's. e.g smoky, suspension issues, fuel economy etc. I would not be happy if my first ever 'new' vehicle has any of these issues. I have an 84 navara ute and you can't kill it! (army green and auto!!)

Midnight Black 2010 D40 ST X Navara

Welcome Fez,

I've got an Avenger Canopy on mine and having had Carryboys, ARB, and Flexiglass canopies on other utes before I'd never go back. Not sure how they compare to the Factory one but the one time i did ask for a price on a factory one it was well over $3000 and mine might have just cost me $3000. If you want really cheap there is a mob in Melbourne advertising on ebay with canopies for about $1500 but the old adage "You get what you pay for" may be appropriate with them.

Don't be too worried about the good and bad points of Nav's, every car and every forum will have large numbers of bad stories about any model of car. No car is immune from problems and no car is prefect in every way but bad news always travels further than good news. There are many of us on this forum with D40's who are completely satisfied with their cars and don't suffer any of the so called "known" issues reported on both this and many other forums or in the media.

cheers Krafty,

Nissan canopy was about 4k at the dealership, have seen some similar looking ones advertised at about 2 - 2.5k, lot of difference.
Might go and have a look at arb shop this morning.
Can't wait for delivery! Apparently the boat has been delayed!!

Ha! the excuse they gave me last year was that there was none in the country, it was the boat that had the canopy on it that got delayed and visited upper west Mongolia and Timbuktu on its way here.

The one and only guy I asked about a Nissan canopy was reluctant to give me a price telling me I could get cheaper after market but I do remember it was well over the $3K mark so it sounds like their prices haven't changed much.

I chose my canopy for the larger access (both side and back) that the windows provided because I cart around a lot of big boxes and rear access isn't always easy to come by where I park and none of the other canopies I had seemed to allow as much clearance to get things out as the Avenger.

I've got an ARB canopy on mine it was recommended by the dealership as being a better option than factory - certainly cheaper. I'd love to have a Caddy one so long as the butchers at Caddy didn't fit it but the ARB will do. The main thing you need to look at is how it will go with roof bars and racks if thats something you plan to do down the track

Also if you have at least one other able body person and a trailer (or ute with a tray) to pick it up from the shop you'll save yourself even more money by fitting it yourself. Pretty much all the leading canopies these days are easy to fit providing you can handle the weight, and the total weight shouldn't need to be lifted for more than a few minutes in total.

My canopy suggested 4 people (in white lab coats and gloves) to lift it onto the ute and while it would have been heaps easier with 4 2 of us got it on in one go and then maneuvered it into place within minutes and had no problems.

Edit: Depending on how the canopy is delivered to the store as to how you can transport it. Mine was still wrapped in the wood, foam and cardboard it was packed with in the shipping container and it fitted in a Ali tray of a Bravo (I think) but due to lack of tie down options on the outside of the Nav tub we had to trailer it to the workshop on a bigger than normal box trailer. My dad's ARB canopy got transported upside down in its wrapping in rather than on the same trailer.

Hi Krafty,

New to this site so hi to all guys....
Mate noticed you mentioned you had an avenger caopy ???
does yours seem to leak alot when it rains or is that what canopys seem to do.???

Cheers

I would suggest leaking isn't restricted to only one brand of canopy, some are worse than others and in my opinion it's due to the mass producing they all go through and the lack of quality control before being shipped. Like cars you can get a lemon or you can get a good one brand and make don't really have a bearing on it

Mine leaked at the drivers side hinge on the back door but it was because quality control obviously didn't check to see that the rubber when closed actually compressed instead of just pushed out of the way. I fixed that by making the rubber seal work as it should.

The only other spot I had leaks was on the back corners but I stopped that by tightening the bolts. I'm not sure if the sticker showing a bolt and spanner and 1000ks means every 1000ks they need tightening or ofter the first 1000ks they need tightening but as is to be expected after the first week my bolts were loose and letting water in, since tightening them I've had no problems and not put a spanner near them in nearly 12 months.

My only other leaks were installed by Nissan when they took the near enough is good enough approach to putting the tub together. I can use the high pressure cleaner on my canopy now and providing I don't aim the jet at the rubber seals I get no water inside.

Oh and welcome to the site

I have a Flexiglass canopy on my D40 - very happy with the Canopy, NOT happy with the cowboys at Flexiglass that fitted it.

A very long sage (nearly 6 months), but in the end i got a free install of roof racks (including the inside frame support) out of Flexiglass because i started to threaten going to ACA, but they even managed to stuff up the roof racks too.

where do you live fez? I am selling my black factory canopy

Nissan navara stx d40 canopy - eBay 4x4 Accessories, Exterior, Car Parts, Accessories, Cars, Bikes, Boats. (end time 22-Jul-10 20:00:14 AEST)

Check this one out I found on Ebay Fez, much cheaper than buying a new genuine one.

Arty

Arty, I'm pretty sure that's Alans, he's a member of this site too.

Arty_74 said:

Nissan navara stx d40 canopy - eBay 4x4 Accessories, Exterior, Car Parts, Accessories, Cars, Bikes, Boats. (end time 22-Jul-10 20:00:14 AEST)

Check this one out I found on Ebay Fez, much cheaper than buying a new genuine one.

Arty

Click to expand...

Might be cheaper than a genuine one but the buy it now price is only $200 less than what I paid for mine brand new. Genuine or not there is no way I'd consider $2750 for a second hand canopy. If the auction doesn't go any higher it's not a bad price but you can do better than than for $2750 from just about every other manufacturer.

Krafty,

What I meant was it's much cheaper than buying a brand new genuine one from Nissan.
I was told the Nissan (snugtop) types were about $4000, the ebay one looks like its a genuine one which seems reasonably priced.

cheers

Arty

alan_blue said:

where do you live fez? I am selling my black factory canopy

Click to expand...

Alan,

I think I did see that. I am in Tassie, have ordered an Avenger XRT. The Nissan ones look the best but way too expensive new. To get one shipped to Tassie adds a few hundred bucks and probably a few dings to boot.
Still waiting for my vehicle! Made them give me a loan car for four weeks!

fez said:

Alan,

I think I did see that. I am in Tassie, have ordered an Avenger XRT. The Nissan ones look the best but way too expensive new. To get one shipped to Tassie adds a few hundred bucks and probably a few dings to boot.
Still waiting for my vehicle! Made them give me a loan car for four weeks!

Click to expand...

If you're getting it shipped straight from Avenger in Melb you shouldn't have any problem, when mine arrived there was little chance of dings and scratches because of how well it was wrapped. Had it not been for an over eager brother who uses that sort of stuff for fire training exercises I'd still be getting rid of it. It may not survive being dropped from a great height but it should survive most freight trauma.

Getting it fitted at local distributor, too slack to do it myself!

Checked out the TJM dual skin canopies, they look good in photos but when I asked about colour coding the local guy wasn't sure so he rang them.

"they all come in white" they said,

"that means I will have to remove the windows and get it painted" he replied.

" no, they come with the fittings all masked up. I have seen a few and in my opinion they all looked like shit" was the TJM guys response!

I couldn't believe it. As if I would spend the best part of 3k on a canopy that is virtually oing to be secondhand. I don't think they will sell too many of them.

Canopy

Hi having D40 Dual Canopy fitted tomorrow at Umhauers in Geelong .
It.s ARB high rise $2300 colour coded and fitted regards Alan

I think the ARB's are about $2600 or $2700 down here. That bit of water costs us a lot of coin. Well they use it as an excuse to charge more for everything anyway!